St-Laurent|Clark back alley between Duluth and des Pins

The back alley that runs behind the western side of St-Laurent is one of Montreal’s great hotspots for commissioned and non-commissioned street art and graffiti. Two stretches of that alley are particularly interesting: the one from Laurier to St-Viateur (the subject of a separate post) and the one from Duluth to des Pins which is covered here. Some of this city’s greatest artists have left their mark there in the form of big murals, smaller figurative pieces, great graffiti, wheatpastes, stencils and of course the unavoidable stickers.

Each segment of the alley has a different feel, so this post is divided accordingly. Most of the photos were taken between the summers 0f 2014 and 2016. Follow me as we walk down from Duluth to des Pins.

Duluth

The walk down the alley starts at the corner of Duluth. At the entrance of the alley, on Duluth itself, is this house featuring Waxhead and Gawd. Waxhead repaints the house’s facade once or twice a year. Photos below appear in chronological order, two from 2012, one from 2013, two from 2014 and three from 2015.

For many years this garage door was covered with a piece by Peru143. The yellow and red throwie on the right is by Wastoids, Peru143’s ‘crew’. Also visible around are tags by Omen and Beeforeo (amongst others).

Turtle Caps (on door), Sake throwie at the top, Wastoids on the right, in Plateau End alley

Same spot as above, redone by Turtle Caps. Above the door is a new fat throwie by Sake and to the right the older throwie by Peru143‘s Wastoids. Also visible are tags by Omen and others.

Turtle Caps (on door), Sake throwie at the top, Wastoids on the right, in Plateau End alley

After Turtle Caps redid the above garage door, it was consistently vandalised by taggers. A turf war ensued, with each party going over each other within a day or two. This is the third version of Turtle Caps’ contribution.

Turtle Caps (on door), Sake throwie at the top, Waxhead on the left, Wastoids on the right, in Plateau End alley

See above. This is something like Turtle Caps‘ seventh version of this door. Notice the new Waxhead piece on the left.

St-Cuthbert

As we cross St-Cuthbert over to the next segment of the alley, contributions to the Mural Festival can be seen on the lateral wall of a St-Laurent pawn shop. Shown below is Scaner and Axe‘s contribution to the 2014 edition of the festival, which replaced the piece done by WZRDS GNG for the 2013 edition (also shown below). Until 2012 this wall only featured tags and uninteresting graffiti.

St-Cuthbert to Roy

Omen mural for the 2013 edition of the Mural Festival, features Five Eight in bottom right corner

Omen‘s contribution to the 2013 edition of Mural Festival was visible (until it was replaced with a new mural; see next) from this segment of the alley just as much as from St-Laurent, through a parking space accessible from both sides. At the bottom of the mural are letter pieces by Omen and Five Eight.

Roy

Halfway between St-Cuthbert and des Pins, a short perpendicular alley connects our alley to St-Laurent and the beginning of Roy. This segment is therefore visible from St-Laurent and is much cleaner (as in ‘free of tags’) than the back alley.